


The Three Phases of Being In Love With Your Co-Star, By Nina Dobrev

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Real Person Fiction, Vampire Diaries RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 04:58:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10678164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: The beginning, the middle, the end, plus one.





	The Three Phases of Being In Love With Your Co-Star, By Nina Dobrev

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: Every story I wrote about NIan was written between December 2010 and January 2014. These are old and hold no bearing on how things actually were, are, or will be. I know Ian is married now, and I am not trying to be disrespectful. For all these years, I kept these stories locked on LiveJournal and protected, and it just occurred to me that these are just stories, and these are as much characters as any of the other fanfic I've ever written. It also represents a lot of my creative time and energy and I'm proud of these stories. So I'm posting them now, with the intent that others might enjoy them.

First, there's the terribly awkward phase of unrequited love.   
  
You know, the one where your co-star is Ian Somerhalder, the most beautiful man who has ever walked the planet, and you're ten  _years_ younger than him, so you know it's never gonna happen  _ever_ , which is fine since your character is supposed to be terrified of his character, and it makes absolutely  _no sense_  that Elena would ever be attracted to Damon.  
  
(Except, you know, if she had a pulse. Because,  _Ian. Somerhalder._ )  
  
So, Nina deals with being in love with someone who will never look at her as anything more than a baby sister by believing whole-heartedly that his flirting, and inappropriate comments, and even that one time he kisses her after they've gone dancing at a club, is just, you know, Ian being Ian. A guy who has had most things handed to him after batting his eyelashes a few times. She doesn't really get it until he drunk dials her during Christmas break, and then she starts freaking the fuck out. Because the sub-section of Phase One is realizing he likes her back, and that's somehow much more scary than the idea that he'd never like her at all.  
  
So she pretends she never got that call, and if he remembers it, he sure as hell doesn't show it, and she just goes on believing it isn't going to happen.  
  
Then she watches  _City of Angels_  one night with Candice and when Nicolas Cage says, "Some things are true whether you believe 'em or not," she starts sobbing uncontrollably.  
  
That leads to Phase Two, which is a horribly unplanned execution of telling Ian that she's in love with him. It happens on set while they're standing under a outdoor tent out of the sun. He smiles so big, she thinks his face might crack, but he doesn't do anything because, of course, just then the shot is ready, and they're herded onto their marks.  
  
(Later, he'll tell her that he wasn't sure if she said it just to get a good performance out of him, but the Miss Mystic Falls dance looks amazing in the dailies. He also says this while laughing, while beneath her, while inside her. She shushes him by pressing her mouth to his and clenching her inner muscles around him until he whimpers.)  
  
  
  
  
  
Phase Two is pretty much everything a girl could dream about. There's the presents from and thoughtfulness of a boyfriend who has had so many women in his life he can't help but be extra thorough in that department. And there's the way he supports her, always silently there, never looking to get in the way, more than content to be her co-star; his generosity as an actor translates into everything he does, so Nina can be in a relationship without it being the only thing in her life.  
  
And, of course, there's the sex. Which is pretty damn amazing, and just gets better the longer they're together. She's never been shy, but to say he takes her to a whole new level of adventure and intimacy is probably an understatement. Her mother tells her she glows; Nina wants to reply with  _it's all the sex endorphins!_  but she doesn't, because it's her mom. Instead, she just says, "I'm in love," to which her mom's face grows very serious and she brushes Nina's hair away from her cheek. "I know, daughter of mine. Be careful, it's a powerful emotion."  
  
She moves in with Ian only six months into it, and never thinks anything of the slight frown that touched her mother's forehead. All she knows is she sleeps better in his house, in his bed, with him or without him (which happens a lot, depending on their shooting schedule) and since she values her sleep more than anything, it makes total sense.   
  
She can't be without Ian, and she can't be without sleep, so shortening their time apart is the only logical conclusion.  
  
(She can be totally logical while also being irrationally in love.)  
  
  
  
  
  
Phase Two leads to Phase Three in this way:   
  
They celebrate their third anniversary by working until six in the morning. Night shoots are nothing new, and when they fall into bed as the sun comes up over Atlanta, she feels the words, "Happy anniversary, babe," tumble out of her mouth. It's not very romantic, and truthfully, she'd almost forgotten to say anything at all.  
  
Ian's hand slides up over her hip, dips under her tank top, and lovingly squeezes her breast as he whispers, "I bought tickets for Coachella. We'll celebrate properly in a month."  
  
She falls asleep before she can tell him there's no way she can go to Coachella because of her film schedule.  
  
That happens the next day, on their way back to set, and because Ian doesn't really get angry (unless animals or waterways are involved), he just goes quiet, which hurts more than anything else could.   
  
She can't exactly explain it, but over the next few weeks things just start to unravel for her. It's not that she doesn't love him, it's that she loves him so much; she can't believe they've been together three years, and obviously they're only headed one place, and she's 24 years old and it's just too much.  
  
They both cry when she tells him she needs a break, and he tenderly kisses her in a hotel room in NYC before they agree not to see each other except at mandatory work functions for the summer break. That kiss leads to a lingering hug, and then Nina finds herself unable to let go of him. They make love, even though they're officially broken up, and it's possibly the sweetest thing he's ever given her.  
  
It's an open-ended good-bye that starts with a few stray tears and ends with her weeping beneath him when the orgasm wracks her body.  
  
(It's possible her brain never stops spasming, all summer long.)  
  
  
  
  
  
Phase Three is this:  
  
Being somewhere with someone who knows her inside out; who knows every little expression and thought that crosses her mind by the mere flick of her eyes; whose eyes seek hers out of a three-year old habit.  
  
So, yeah, they might be broken up, but he's still her best friend, he's still the only person who can say two words so that she knows he knows just what she's thinking.  
  
He's still the person who knows her better than anyone, and more than anything, he's still Ian, electric and magnetic; and that also happens to translate into the fact that everything he knows about her she also knows about him.   
  
She tries not to feel it, or know it, or show it, but it's impossible. And work is  _work_ , because, oh yeah--Damon and Elena? Their relationship is just fine. They have to kiss, and touch, and there is nothing more mechanical than filming a love scene, except that she'd swear that Ian's fingertips have morphed into tasers, and she practically jumps every time his skin comes into contact with hers. (Or maybe it's just because she hasn't had any sex since New York, and she totally should have taken Derek's offer that came late one night before they left for Thailand.)  
  
But here's where Phase Three becomes the best  _and_  the worst thing in her life:  
  
They (Damon and Elena) are kissing and he (Damon) swipes his tongue over her (Elena's) top lip. Josh yells cut, they discuss the implication of tongues and how they won't use any footage with that going on because they can get away with a lot of stuff, but tongues, for whatever reason, are off limits.  
  
If Ian wasn't vehemently arguing the fact that they've already shown orgasms on their show and that that makes no sense, Nina might find the ability to be paranoid about the intent of his tongue.  
  
They finish the scene with their mouths open, but their tongues inside, and Nina makes a beeline for her dressing room when it's over, because  _thank God!_  she's done for the day.  
  
This would be okay, except for that part about Ian knowing her so well, because when he lets himself into the room a few minutes later, she's ready to scream.  
  
But he apologizes, and says he thinks he got carried away...and he rambles on long enough in this adorably nervous and fidgety way that makes her sure the only way to shut him up is to kiss him.  
  
Abruptly pulling back, it's  _her_  turn to apologize, so she does, even though it feels stupid. She turns away from him, and when she opens her mouth to ask him to leave, his arm snakes around her waist and pulls her back against him. His lips whisper over her ear while his hand opens wide over her stomach.  
  
She wants to relax;  _he_  wants her to relax, she can tell, and so she tries, desperately, which of course is counter-intuitive. She starts laughing at her own thoughts because even those are in Ian's voice in her head, because everything is about Ian, though she's spent months-- _god, years_ , trying to make it  _not_  be that. And even though every interview she'll ever give will insist upon her complete autonomy, the truth is, she never felt as whole as she did when she met him. Her head falls back against his shoulder, and she laughs until she cries; just about the time she catches her breath, his fingers tremble against her belly.  
  
They move slowly. Plenty slow enough for her to stop him, to redirect him, or at the very least chastise him for assuming whatever he's assuming. But then his (Ian's) hand slips into the waistband of her (Elena's) skirt, and his (Ian's) fingers find her (Nina) exactly the way he expects to; he half-groans, half-mewls her name and she feels his first two digits curl reflexively up into the slick, heated cove between her legs. Nina's fairly certain he doesn't even move his hand before she's coming all over it, but he keeps stroking her so that a second orgasm is washing over her as his hard-on presses uncomfortably against her ass.  
  
She's recovering as his lips trail tentatively down her throat. He draws his hand from inside her panties and pushes her forward a little, putting space between their bodies. Her legs are shaky but stable, and as she musters the courage to turn around and face him, she hears the dressing room door open. He leaves before she can say or do anything.  
  
Her phone buzzes two minutes later after she's collapsed on to the corner sofa.   
  
_Sorry. I know we're broken up. Won't happen again._  
  
Nina jams the phone down in between the couch cushions. She curses out loud, but then promptly shoves her fist against her lips, stifling herself for whose benefit, she has no idea.  
  
(She thinks there could be a Phase Four, but she can't even contemplate that right now.)

**Author's Note:**

> This was written after it was confirmed they broke up.


End file.
